Hsien-Ko
Hsien-Ko (Lei-Lei in Japan) is a video game character in the Darkstalkers series. She, along with Donovan, takes the role of a "Dark Hunter", in that she hunts Darkstalkers. Story Sometime around the 1730s, Hsien-Ko was born with her twin Shao Lin-Lin (called Mei-Ling in the English localization of Vampire Savior). During this time, ghosts and spirits of the dead arose from their resting places and attacked a rural Chinese village. After her mother was killed by a powerful Darkstalker, she and her sister decided to use Tensei-no-Jutsu to save her, but they used a prohibited sub-division of this technique, Igyo Tenshin-no-Jutsu, and fought to release their mother's soul from the dark. This turned the twins into a jiāngshī, a type of Chinese zombie (with powers that more closely resemble a ghost). This, however, also gave the two unusual abilities which the two use to fight for their purposes. Mei-Ling is actually the ward-paper (fú) on Hsien-Ko's hat. Hsien-Ko's powers cannot be fully controlled unless Mei-Ling does so herself when she becomes the ward-paper. If she separates from Hsien-Ko, many of Hsien-Ko's abilities no longer work (other times it is said that she loses control of herself), so they essentially fight as one. Hsien-Ko is the "body" and Mei-Ling the "mind." Once in a while, however, Mei-Ling does come out to team up with Hsien-Ko, as seen by their Dark Force ability in Darkstalkers 3. The two fight many battles during Night Warriors, and eventually win the freedom of their mothers' soul, but at the cost of their own lives. Before death however, the spirit of their mother claims she will not let oblivion become their reward, and the twins' souls are reborn as infants in a new life. As of Vampire Savior, the two live a happy, normal life in their reincarnation. However, on their 16th birthday, weird things begin to happen to them. They have the same dream and the next night, they fall into a coma and their souls were transported to the Dark Realm, which called to them. They found themselves in weird costumes, and although their memories of their past life are sketchy, things begin to slowly come back to them. They regained their unique power of transformation they had lost during the death of the life preceding this one. Now as saviors and hunters once more, they must find their way home to Earth Realm. Gameplay Hsien-Ko is a unique, gimmicky character in Darkstalkers. ''Her unusual attributes come from her ability to air dash, teleporting ground dash, many projectiles, She is a great offensive character; boasting tricky mobility using Pendulum (Senpuu Bu) cancels, high/low mixups using her hard punch item (Anki Hou), and an excellent super in Tenrai Ha, which can set up overhead unblockables that are core to her game. On the downside, she is tied for the worst health in Vampire Savior with Morrigan and Lilith, along with having poor defensive options because of her wide standing hurtbox, unreliable anti airs, and a poor guard cancel. Her tournament results have varied wildly due to the nature of her playstyle. Upon her transition to ''Marvel vs Capcom 3, ''this was not the case. Her mobility is among the worst in the game and her attaks deal far less damage than in ''Darkstalkers, ''even with an X factor. In addition, her health is only average and is still lacking defense options. She has been placed at the bottom of nearly every tier list and is widely considered the weakest character in the game. Hsien-Ko's odd stance and movements are attributed to her being a jiāngshī (or kuang-si), which are also known as "Hopping Vampires". However, she mostly runs and "walks" with her big claws, hopping only when near enemies. She can also run on air, almost acting as a human. Powers and abilities Due to her transformation, Hsien-Ko has abilities beyond the human form and is one of the few humans who can stand on equal footing with a darkstalker. Her ghostly traits allow her to run across air and even disappear temporarily (during dashes). Her sleeves contain far more weapons that should be able to be contained in them, which she uses for attacks. The weapons Hsien-Ko uses include a saw, knives, a sword, a chain, a giant gong that can emit sonic-waves when struck, a spiked flail, and variety of other weapons. She also once in a while throws some cameo items such as a statue of Akuma, Vega's claw, and Chun-Li's bracelets. Other Appearances She appears as a playable character in ''Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, Pocket Fighter, Super Gem Fighter: Mini Mix as well as in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. She appears as a playable character in the crossover strategy game Namco x Capcom, where she came to Japan aboard the Spencer Rain to investigate the immense sorcery that she sensed, and assures the Resident Evil duo and Regina that she is not going to haunt anyone. Interestingly enough, she is partnered with Fong Ling from Resident Evil Dead Aim; in the game, Lord Raptor is infatuated with her, but she wants nothing to do with him. She and her sister also appear in Ken Masters' stage (in dress clothes and as humans) in Street Fighter Alpha 2 as guests to Eliza's birthday, along with other Capcom characters such as Strider Hiryu and Captain Commando. Hsien-Ko also appears in the background of the Capcom vs. SNK 2 stage in Shanghai, and makes a cameo appearance in Pyron's ending and the Hong Kong stage in Capcom Fighting Evolution. Trivia *The Deshi Deshiko character from Rosario + Vampire's true form of kyonshi is inspired by Hsien-Ko. *Many of Hsien-Ko's design have drawn inspirations and later becomes inspiration itself to later character designs. **Her ability to throw items from hammerspace, and even deploy chained claws, seems to draw parallels to Mousse from Ranma 1/2. **Hsien-Ko's large claws and sleeves appears to inspire Arc System Works' Taokaka from the Blazblue series of games. Taokaka can not only produce claws, but also saw blades and other types of blades. As Hsien-Ko came many years before, it is more than likely Taokaka is an homage (it is arguable she is also an homage to Felicia too). **Xiao Lon from King of Fighters (especially in Regulation A) also seems inspired by her in terms of appearance and especially fighting style. *Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling are likely fraternal twins, due to both of them possessing different facial features and hair colors. *Lord Raptor seems to have some sort of romantic interest in Hsien-Ko, a fellow zombie, but she does not seem to share this interest. This was also referenced in Namco x Capcom. She also mentions Raptor again in a win quote from Marvel Vs. Capcom 3, saying that her opponent was annoying, but not nearly as annoying as Raptor, once again showing they may have some sort of relationship with each other. *Hsien-Ko's winning pose in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is visually similar to Chun-Li's victory pose from the Street Fighter series. *Hsien-Ko has a special cell phone puzzle game called "Lei-Lei Magical Hammer", similar to "Puzzle Anakaris". Gallery For more images of this character, see their Gallery. Category:Darkstalkers Characters Category:Characters Category:Monsters Category:Heroes Category:Female Characters Category:Fighting Game Characters Category:Non-Human Characters Category:Chinese Characters